Jocelyn Lee Hardy
| Jocelyn Lee Hardy | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
10 June 1894 Kensington, London, England, UK |
| Died | 30 May 1958 (aged 63) Hammersmith, London, England, UK |
| Allegiance |
 United Kingdom
|
| Unit |
Connaught Rangers Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers Auxiliary Division, Royal Irish Constabulary (attached from military intelligence) Home Guard |
| Battles/wars |
World War I Irish War of Independence World War II |
| Awards |
Distinguished Service Order Military Cross and Bar Mention in Dispatches |
| Other work | Author |
Major Jocelyn Lee Hardy DSO, MC with Bar (10 June 1894 – 30 May 1958), was a British Army officer famed for his courage on the battlefield and repeated escapes from German prisoner of war camps during the First World War.
Between 1920 and 1922 he served as an intelligence officer in Dublin as part of the British counter-insurgency against republican forces during the Irish War of Independence. He retired from the army to become a successful writer. His nickname, "Hoppy", stemmed from the loss of a leg in combat during the final months of World War One. Fitted with an artificial prosthesis, he trained himself to disguise the fact, by walking at a very quick pace, almost completely disguising the notion that he had a wooden leg, but earning him the sobriquet "Hoppy".
Jocelyn Lee Hardy was born 10 June 1894 in Kensington, London to Howard and Katherine Hardy. His father was a wool merchant from County Down. Jocelyn Hardy later joined the Connaught Rangers, gaining his commission and joining the 2nd battalion at Aldershot in January 1914.
Hardy first saw action on 24 August 1914 when his unit served as a rearguard to cover the retirement of the 5th Infantry Brigade in action at Le Grand Fayt, France. By 26 August, Hardy and a group of 19 men led by a Captain Roche found themselves cut off and took shelter in a house being used as a makeshift hospital in the village of Maroilles. During the night, a large force of Germans entered the town, and the next day Hardy's group were discovered and taken prisoner, among 286 men listed as missing in the action.
On 21 September 1914, Hardy was promoted to lieutenant whilst a prisoner of war. He made twelve escape attempts from POW camps succeeding in actually escaping on five separate occasions.
In early 1915, he attempted to escape from Halle Camp, near Leipzig, by breaking through a brick wall into an adjacent ammunition factory. After five months' work, the project proved impracticable.
In the summer of 1915, he was transferred to Augustabad Camp, near Neu Brandenburg, and 10 days later managed to slip away from a bathing party outside the camp, together with a Russian officer. In what was a difficult journey, they covered the 50 miles (80 km) to the Baltic coast. They swam a river, were nearly recaptured once, but eventually reached Stralsund. Once there, they nearly managed to get the crew of a Swedish schooner to give them passage, but were arrested at the last moment.
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